The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has flagged off a sensitization program for the commencement of full application of the cashless policy in Plateau state.  The CBN cashless policy was introduced last year and is been implemented across the country on zonal bases. It was first tried in Lagos state and expected to cover the 36 states of the federation by the end of June this year.

Speaking Tuesday at the flagging off ceremony held at the conference hall of Hill Station Hotel Jos, the CBN acting governor, Dr Sarah Alade who was represented by the CBN Branch controller in Jos, Mathias Kurah said the programme was holding simultaneously in other states, adding that policy will reposition the Nigerian financial system and address current challenges faced as well as transform the country into a first world economy.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has flagged off a sensitization program for the commencement of full application of the cashless policy in Plateau state.  The CBN cashless policy was introduced last year and is been implemented across the country on zonal bases. It was first tried in Lagos state and expected to cover the 36 states of the federation by the end of June this year.

Speaking Tuesday at the flagging off ceremony held at the conference hall of Hill Station Hotel Jos, the CBN acting governor, Dr Sarah Alade who was represented by the CBN Branch controller in Jos, Mathias Kurah said the programme was holding simultaneously in other states, adding that policy will reposition the Nigerian financial system and address current challenges faced as well as transform the country into a first world economy.

Alade explained that with the business community’s strong adoption of the policy, the CBN was enlarging financial contact points to include post offices, motor parks as well as corner shops.

She stressed, “The cashless policy intends to reduce and not eliminate the use of physical cash payment in Nigeria and other ills associated with a cash centric economy such as robberies, election rigging, revenue leakage, kidnapping etc.

Elaborating on the advantages of the policy to stakeholders in Jos, Aaron Aminu Yadumu from the Shared Service Office said, “the use of Point-of-sale (POS) machines had “impressively increased from 5,000 as at 2012 to over 177,000 as at August 2013. So it is encouraging that adoption is taking place.”

Yadumu encouraged state government officials and residents to embrace the policy adding that the internal revenues of states like Lagos and Ogun had increased geometrically due to their adoption of the cashless policy.

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CBN flags off cashless policy in Plateau state